The Economy Survey

In November of last year, we sent out a survey to gauge the mood of ChangeThis readers and see if you could help provide some solutions and encouragement for ourselves and eachother. After many months of immense change, both in the country as a whole and within our small company, we have finally finished sifting through those responses. We made the following three inquiries: "In one word, sum up how you feel right now;"How is this affecting you?" and; "What are you choosing to do about it?" The 1400 replies we received to this survey are further proof, beyond the intuitive, that work is life and that the personal is the professional. Some people used creative metaphors to express their situations. Others used humor. Some enumerated their action plan. Some ranted. Some marveled. Some refused to accept a doom and gloom outlook and endeavored to see the possibilities that come with change. There are some trends, of course, and there were ample frustrations—with capitalism and ageism, with excess and politics. The cover of this manifesto is a word cloud of the most common responses to that first inquiry, "How do you feel right now?" and each paragraph hereafter is a different individual's response. So, read on, dear readers, read on... to commiserate, to raise your spirits, to hope, to cry, to worry some more and unburden yourself. Read on. Theses are your answers.